Home of the Brave (53 page)

The signal I had appointed
for the attack was the momentary cessation of fire on the part of
our heavy batteries. About eight o clock in the morning of the
13th, judging that the time had arrived, by the effect of the
missiles we had thrown, I sent an aide-de-camp to Pillow,, and
another to Quitman, with notice that the concerted signal was about
to be given. Both columns now advanced with an alacrity that gave
assurance of prompt success. The batteries, seizing opportunities,
threw shots and shells upon the enemy- over the heads of our men
with good effect, particularly at every attempt to reinforce the
works from without to meet our assault.

Major-General Pillow’s
approach on the west side, lay through an open grove filled with
sharpshooters, who were speedily dislodged when, being up with the
front of the attack, and emerging into open space at the foot of a
rocky acclivity, that gallant leader was struck down by an
agonizing wound. The immediate command devolved on
Brigadier-General Cadwallader, in the absence of the senior
brigadier (Pierce) of the same division an invalid since the events
of August 19. On a previous call of Pillow, Worth had just sent him
a reinforcement Colonel Clarke’s brigade.

The broken acclivity was
still to be ascended, and a strong redoubt, midway, to be carried,
before reaching the castle on the heights. The advance of our brave
men, led by brave officers, though necessarily slow, was
unwavering, over rocks, chasms, and mines, and under the hottest
fire of cannon and musketry. The redoubt now yielded to resistless
valor, and the shouts that followed announced to the castle the
fate that impended. The enemy were steadily driven from shelter to
shelter. The retreat allowed not time to fire a single mine,
without the certainty of blowing up friend and foe. Those who, at a
distance, attempted to apply matches to the long trains, were shot
down by our men. There was death below, as well as above ground. At
length the ditch and wall of the main work were reached, the
scaling ladders were brought up and planted by the storming
parties, some of the daring spirits, first in the assault, were
cast down killed or wounded, but a lodgment was soon made, streams
of heroes followed, all opposition was over come, and several of
our regimental colors flung out from the upper walls, amidst
long-continued shouts and cheers, which sent dismay into the
capital. No scene could have been more animating or
glorious.

Major-General Quitman,
nobly supported by Brigadier-Generals Shields and Smith (P. F.),
his other officers and men, was up with the part assigned him.
Simultaneously with the movement on the west, he had gallantly
approached the southeast of the same works over a causeway with
cuts and batteries, and defended by an army strongly posted
outside, to the east of the works. Those formidable obstacles
Quitman had to face, with but little shelter for his troops or
space for maneuvering. Deep ditches, flanking the causeway, made it
difficult to cross on either side into the adjoining meadows, and
these again were intersected by other ditches. Smith and his
brigade had been early thrown out to make a sweep to the right, in
order to present a front against the enemy’s line (outside), and to
turn two intervening batteries, near the foot of
Chapultepec.

This movement was also
intended to support Quitman’s storming parties, both on the
causeway. The first of these, furnished by Twiggs’s division, was
commanded in succession by Captain Casey, 2d Infantry, and Captain
Paul, 7th Infantry, after Casey had been severely wounded ; and the
second, originally under the gallant Major Twiggs, Marine Corps,
killed, and then Captain Miller, 2d Pennsylvania Volunteers. The
storming party, now commanded by Captain Paul, seconded by Captain
Roberts of the Rifles, Lieutenant Stewart, and others of the same
regiment, Smith’s brigade, carried the two batteries in the road,
took some guns, with many prisoners, and drove the enemy posted
behind in support. The New York and South Carolina Volunteers
(Shields’s brigade), and the 2d Pennsylvania Volunteers, all on the
left of Quitman’s line, together with portions of his storming
parties, crossed the meadows in front under a heavy fire, and
entered the outer enclosure of Chapultepec just in time to join in
the final assault from the west.

Besides Major-Generals
Pillow and Quitman, Brigadier-Generals Shields, Smith, and
Cadwallader, the following are the officers and corps most
distinguished in those brilliant operations: The Voltigeur
regiment, in two detachments, commanded respectively by Colonel
Andrews and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Johnston the latter mostly in
the lead, accompanied by Major Caldwell ; Captains Barnard and C.
J. Biddle, of the same regiment the former the first to plant a
regimental color, and the latter among the first in the assault ;
the storming party of Worth’s division, under Captain McKenzie, 2d
Artillery, with Lieutenant Selden, 8th Infantry, early on the
ladder and badly wounded ; Lieutenant Armistead, 6th Infantry, the
first to leap into the ditch to plant a ladder ; Lieutenant Rogers,
of the 4th, and J. P. Smith, of the 5th Infantry both mortally
wounded; the 9th Infantry, under Colonel Ransom, who was killed
while gallantly leading that gallant regiment ; the 15th Infantry,
under Lieutenant- Colonel Howard and Major Woods, with Captain
Chase, whose company gallantly carried the redoubt, midway up the
acclivity; Colonel Clarke’s brigade (Worth’s division), consisting
of the 5th, 8th, and part of the 6th regiments of infantry,
commanded respectively by Captain Chapman, Major Montgomery, and
Lieutenant Edward Johnson the latter specially noticed with
Lieutenants Longstreet (badly wounded, advancing, colors in hand),
Pickett, and Merchant the last three of the 8th Infantry; portions
of the United States Marines, New York, South Carolina, and 2d
Pennsylvania Volunteers, which, delayed with their division
(Quitman’s) by the hot engagement below, arrived just in time to
participate in the assault of the heights ; particularly a
detachment, under Lieutenant Reed, New York Volunteers, consisting
of a company of the same, with one of marines and another
detachment, a portion of the storming party (Twiggs’s division,
serving with Quitman), under Lieutenant Steele, 2d Infantry, after
the fall of Lieutenant Gantt, 7th Infantry.

In this connection, it is
but just to recall the decisive effect of the heavy batteries, Nos.
1, 2, 3, and 4, commanded by those excellent officers, Captain
Drum, 4th Artillery, assisted by Lieutenants Benjamin and Porter of
his own company ; Captain Brooks and Lieutenant Anderson, 2d
Artillery, assisted by Lieutenant Russell, 4th Infantry, a
volunteer ; Lieutenants Hagner and Stone, of the Ordnance, and
Lieutenant Andrews, 3d Artillery the whole superintended by Captain
Huger, Chief of Ordnance with this army, an officer distinguished
by every kind of merit. The Mountain Howitzer Battery, under
Lieutenant Reno, of the Ordnance, deserves also to be particularly
mentioned. Attached to the Voltigeurs, it followed the movements of
that regiment, and again won applause.

In adding to the list of
individuals of conspicuous merit, I must limit myself to a few of
the many names which might be enumerated : Captain Hooker, Assist
ant Adjutant-General, who won special applause, successively, in
the staff of Pillow and Cadwallader ; Lieutenant Lovell, 4th
Artillery (wounded), chief of Quitman’s staff; Captain Page,
Assistant Adjutant-General (wounded), and Lieutenant Hammond, 3d
Artillery, both of Shields’s staff, and Lieutenant Van Dora (7th
Infantry), Aide-de-Camp to Brigadier-General Smith.

Those operations all
occurred on the west, southeast, and heights of Chapultepec. To the
north, and at the base of the mound, inaccessible on that side, the
11th Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Hebert, the 14th, under
Colonel Trousdale, and Captain Magruder’s field battery, 1st
Artillery, one section advanced under Lieutenant Jackson, all of
Pillow’s division, had, at the same time, some spirited affairs
against superior numbers, driving the enemy from a battery in the
road, and capturing a gun. In these, the officers and corps named
gained merited praise. Colonel Trousdale, the commander, though
twice wounded, continued on duty until the heights were
carried.

Early in the morning of
the 13th, I repeated the orders of the night before to
Major-General Worth, to be with his division at hand to support the
movement of Major-General Pillow from our left. The latter seems
soon to have called for that entire division, standing momentarily
in reserve, and Worth sent him Colonel Clarke’s brigade. The call,
if not unnecessary, was at least, from the circumstances, unknown
to me at the time for, soon observing that the very large body of
the enemy, in the road in front of Major-General Quitman’s right,
was receiving reinforcements from the city less than a mile and a
half to the east I sent instructions to Worth, on our opposite
flank, to turn Chapultepec with his division, and to proceed
cautiously by the road at its northern base, in order, if not met
by very superior numbers, to threaten or to attack in rear that
body of the enemy. The movement it was also believed could not fail
to distract and to intimidate the enemy generally.

Worth promptly advanced
with his remaining brigade Colonel Garland’s Lieutenant - Colonel
C. F. Smith’s light battalion, Lieutenant - Colonel Duncan’s field
battery all of his division and three squadrons of dragoons, under
Major Sumner, which I had just ordered up to join in the
movement.

Having turned the forest
on the west, and arriving opposite to the north centre of
Chapultepec, Worth came up with the troops in the road, under
Colonel Trousdale, and aided, by a flank movement of a part of
Garland’s brigade, in taking the one-gun breastwork, then under the
fire of Lieutenant Jackson’s section of Captain Magruder’s field
battery. Continuing to advance, this division passed Chapultepec,
attacking the right of the enemy’s line, resting on that road,
about the moment of the general retreat consequent upon the capture
of the formidable castle and its outworks.

Arriving some minutes
later, and mounting to the top of the castle, the whole field to
the east lay plainly under my view.

There are two routes from
Chapultepec to the capital the one on the right entering the same
gate, Belen, with the road from the south, via Piedad ; and the
other obliqueing to the left, to intersect the great western, or
San Cosme road, in a suburb outside of the gate of San
Cosme.

Each of these routes (an
elevated causeway) presents a double roadway on the sides of an
aqueduct of strong masonry, and great height, resting on open
arches and massive pillars, which, together, afford fine points
both for attack and defense. The sideways of both aqueducts were,
moreover, defended by many strong breast works at the gates, and
before reaching them. As we had expected, we found the four tracks
unusually dry and solid for the season.

Worth and Quitman were
prompt in pursuing the retreating enemy the former by the San Cosme
aqueduct, and the latter along that of Belen. Each had now advanced
some hundred yards.

Deeming it all-important
to profit by our successes, and the consequent dismay of the enemy,
which could not be otherwise than general, I hastened to dispatch
from Chapultepec, first Clarke’s brigade, and then Cadwallader’s,
to the support of Worth, and gave orders that the necessary heavy
guns should follow. Pierce’s brigade was at the same time, sent to
Quitman, and in the course of the afternoon, I caused some
additional siege pieces to be added to his train. Then after
designating the 15th Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Howard
Morgan, the colonel, had been disabled by a wound at Churubusco as
the garrison of Chapultepec, and giving directions for the care of
the prisoners of war, the captured ordnance and ordnance stores, I
proceeded to join the advance of Worth, within the suburb, and
beyond the turn at the junction of the aqueduct with the great
highway from the west to the gate of San Cosme.

At this junction of roads,
we first passed one of those formidable systems of city defenses,
spoken of above, and it had not a gun a strong proof:

1. That the enemy had
expected us to fail in the attack upon Chapultepec, even if we
meant anything more than a feint.

2. That in either case, we
designed, in his belief, to return and double our forces against
the southern gates, a delusion kept up by the active demonstrations
of Twiggs with the forces posted on that side.

3. That advancing rapidly
from that reduction of Chapultepec, the enemy had not time to shift
guns our previous captures had left him, comparatively, but few
from the southern gates.

Within those dis-garnished
works, I found our troops engaged in a street fight against the
enemy posted in gardens, at windows and on housetops all flat, with
parapets. Worth ordered forward the mountain howitzers of
Cadwallader’s brigade, preceded by skirmishers and pioneers, with
pick-axes and crowbars, to force windows and doors, or to burrow
through walls. The assailants were soon on an equality of position
fatal to the enemy. By eight o clock in the evening, Worth had
carried two batteries in this suburb. According to my instructions,
he here posted guards and sentinels, and placed his troops under
shelter for the night, within the San Cosme gate
(custom-house.)

I had gone back to the
foot of Chapultepec, the point from which the two aqueducts begin
to diverge, some hours earlier, in order to be near that new depot,
and in easy communication with Quitman and Twiggs, as well as with
Worth.